Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 1:17

ἔπεσα κ. τ. λ., the stereotyped behaviour (cf. Numbers 24:4) in such apocalyptic trances (Weinel, 129, 182, R. J. 375 f.; for the terror of spiritual experience cf. Schiller's lines: “Schrecklich ist es Deiner Wahrheit | Sterbliches Gefäss zu seyn”); Jesus, however, does here what Michael (En. lxxi. 3) or some other friendly angel does in most Jewish apocalypses. There is no dialogue between the prophet and Christ, as there is afterwards between him and the celestial beings μὴ φ. The triple reassurance is (1) that the mysterious, overwhelming Figure reveals his character, experience and authority, instead of proving an alien unearthly visitant; (2) the vision has a practical object (“write,” 19) bearing upon human life, and (3) consequently the mysteries are not left as baffling enigmas. All the early Christian revelations which are self-contained, presuppose the risen Christ as their source; the Apocalypse of Peter, being fragmentary, is hardly an exception to the rule. The present vision presents him as superhuman, messianic, militant and divine. But the writer is characteristically indifferent to the artistic error of making Christ's right hand at once hold seven stars and be laid on the seer (Revelation 1:16-17). Cf. the fine application of the following passage by Milton in his “Remonstrant's Defence”. The whole description answers to what is termed, in modern psychology, a “photism”.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 1:17

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